Launched Rocket
by Byzinha Lestrange
Summary: I told Sam my chances with Vicki Appleby were ruined because she was into Bill. He laughed at me, of course. So I gathered three evidences to prove me right. / Three evidences of Vicki's crush on Bill, by Neal Schweiber
1. Launched Rocket

**A/N**: Oh God, guys, tell me to stop!

Okay, no. This is gonna have 4 short chapters. I'm working on c3, but I think I'll have everything posted by the end of the week. It's a Bill/Vicki little thing by Neal's eyes. I'm sorry any mistake or typo and I hope you guys like it.

Friendly reminder that _Freaks and Geeks_ is not mine; if it was, we'd have at least 4 seasons. :(

Reviews are welcome!

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**Launched Rocket**

I'm not the luckiest person in the world. There, I said it.

I used to think I was – I have great parents, an awesome older brother and the best best friends in the world (including one who has a pretty hot older sister) – but High School came and brought along my unfaithful father, my brother with my friend's sister and my undoubted lack of luck with girls.

The funny thing is, I always was the one mocking Sam's inability to talk to Cindy Sanders (and yet, he dated her for about a month); or Bill, always so shy and – let's face it – not the most best looking guy around (but even so, Vicki Appleby was into him).

You see, we were all geeks in the eyes of everyone in our school. It seems like one can't like the same stuff one did _months_ before getting into High School. I can't like Star Wars or comic books, or I'm a dork. Not cool in the wild teenage world.

Now here's a thing: I've never been _cool_. I might be funny and good looking – I know I am -, but not cool. Not in the way everyone wants me to be; and more: I can't change it, I can't give up the stuff I really like, because it'd be like giving up of myself. It doesn't quite make sense to me.

What bothers me the most is… my friends are exactly like me, _but they've got girls_, while I'm still here waiting for my chance. I mean, I wasn't even lucky in a make out party! How can that be?

-X-

I told Sam my chances with Vicki Appleby were ruined because she was into Bill. He laughed at me, of course.

"They made out once. It doesn't mean anything." He said. "And I'm not sure if he'd be interested anyway, she's a bitch with him."

"Sam. _Who_ wouldn't be interested in Vicki?"

Sam just waved it off. I told him I'd give him three evidences of why Vicki and Bill would be a couple anytime soon.

"Well, and I'm gonna give you _one_ reason why they'll not, no matter what you say: he's a geek while she's the queen bee. It's not gonna happen."

He had a point, but I rolled my eyes. "_You_ dated Cindy."

Sam shrugged. Rumor has it that he's the cute one of us three. Bleh.


	2. Evidence Number One

**Evidence Number One** (of Vicki's crush on Bill), by Neal Schweiber: _The Beginning_

Two and a half months for the end of freshman year (how come she's the captain of the cheerleaders being a freshman? She must be pretty great for real). Make out party at Mona's. The bottle pointed to Vicki and Bill three times and they went to "seven minutes in heaven" (what a stupid freaking name), locked themselves on a laundry.

Seven minutes I counted, that dumbass bottle not landing on me even once, my thought on Vicki there with Bill, who didn't even want to come in the first place. I feared for both of them because he's the nicest guy and didn't really deserve her bitching over him, and because she didn't want to be near him anyway. That was probably painful.

I was so bored and angry I decided to quit the game. I wasn't there for all that bull. But then, Sean said it.

"Hey, Nando! Why don't you take and check on your boyfriend and Vicki? They were supposed to be back, like…" he looked at Maureen's watch dramatically. "Five minutes ago."

"Oh, that's true!" Maureen exclaimed. "I even forgot! Thing must be good over there." They laughed.

I rolled my eyes. "Whatever. I'll go check them out."

I think I knocked for about three minutes without answer. That made _fifteen_ minutes in heaven. I went to the kitchen, took a cup of whatever was that thing people were drinking and sat by the end of the hall alone. Seventeen minutes. Maureen sat by my side.

"Hey Neal."

I took a sip of my drink. "Glad you still know my name." I said, a bit too bitter, maybe.

"What?"

"Never mind."

She nodded then spoke again. "So… what are you doing here alone?"

"Hm… Sam is with Cindy somewhere and Bill is still in that room with Vicki."

Her eyes widened. "Really?"

"Yea. I knocked for, like, three minutes."

Maureen laughed.

"Bill must be a very good kisser." She said. I made a face.

"Yea, I doubt so." And afraid she'd keep with the subject, I changed it. "And why are _you_ here and not there?"

She shrugged again.

"I guess it wasn't our lucky day today, was it, Neal?"

After a second, I shook my head.

"The boy I wanted to kiss is with another girl, but I guess it's okay. I wasn't making such a big deal about it and this party's being _lots of fun_."

She really looked okay about it, and she was joking around, laughing the whole night. I believed her. I should've had thought like her since the beginning, because I _was_ making a big deal of that party.

My brother Barry says I should low my expectations about things a bit. He might be right.

"Man, it's almost twenty minutes!" she said, getting up. "I'm gonna knock."

"I already knocked. I think they're sleeping." I replied and she raised an eyebrow.

"You do? Well, I'm knocking anyway."

The moment she raised her hand to knock, the door opened and Bill appeared.

"Oh! Hi Bill!"

"Hey Maureen. What time is it?"

"Hm…" she looked at her watch. "Exactly twelve minutes after the wrap of your seven minutes in heaven."

"Oh." Was the only thing he said, then he saw me. "What are you doing there?"

I breathed to take a moment.

"Well, I quitted, you know?"

"Why?"

I think I saw something at that moment, like… something switching in him. He was kind of… light and smiling, I mean, what the hell happened?

"We should probably go home." I finally said.

"Yea. Where's Sam?" he walked out of the way, down the hall and I followed him a few steps behind. Maureen was talking to Vicki, head tilted like she was trying to read something hidden.

"Vicki? You're smiling." She said.

"What? Are you saying I don't usually smile?" Vicki replied, but was hard to take her seriously because she was practically laughing.

"You guys took drugs on there or something?" I asked Bill.

"No, we were just kissing."

My eyebrows rose simultaneously and I looked back to Maureen and Vicki.

See, I'm one of those who didn't quite believe Bill. Even if Vicki herself had told the whole McKinley School she'd kissed Bill Haverchuck, people would laugh and doubt. And I refused to believe him because of my stupid proud, but I remember pretty well Vicki's look that night, like she had just discovered the best Christmas present ever.

You can't argue with a happy, satisfied woman.

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_**A/N**: Are you guys liking it? I'm really glad with the feedback. Reviews are always welcome! :D_


	3. Evidence Number Two

**Evidence Number Two** (of Vicki's crush on Bill), by Neal Schweiber: _The Smile_

"I'm almost believing you really kissed Vicki." I told Bill.

Two weeks before the summer holidays. We were at school, lunch time.

"I don't see why you wouldn't believe me in the first place." He said. I'm pretty sure he knew, but was only giving me a hard time. He was getting pretty good at it. _El efecto Vicki_.

"Seriously, Bill. What were you guys doing at that room?" I had asked that probably a million times.

"I told you. We talked. And then she kissed me. That's all."

"Are you sure you didn't make her fall in love with you?"

"That's so not possible, Neal." He said.

"Yea, man. I think you're overreacting a bit, don't you?" Sam completed. I looked at them.

"But what if she had? Let's pretend she had. Would you date her? Would you let the opportunity pass?"

"Neal…"

"Would you?" I insisted.

"No. Because it's not happening."

"You don't know that."

"Neither do you."

I sighed, looking around.

"But…" I restarted, but Bill cut me.

"Quit it, Neal. I'm not interested! So just relax, okay?"

"Why not?"

"Because you like her! And you're my best friend and I'm not a jerk, okay?"

That shut me up.

-X-

But.

No longer later, we had to go to my locker because I forgot one of my notebooks. Since I wasn't finding it – because my locker was a complete mess – and we had to go to class, I told them to go ahead.

"Are you sure?" Sam asked, trying to look into my locker and spot my notebook. "You'll be late for class."

"It's okay, I'm gonna find it. You guys can go."

And because fate is a weird little thing, I found my book seconds later, under all of my books, and I turned to see where they were, just to see Vicki with Maureen and Bell coming in the opposite direction. They were talking about something serious, because their expressions were as if they were talking about politics or something.

They were so into their chat that Vicki stumbled hard on Bill, they kind of tangling on each other.

"Watch it!" she exclaimed, looking right into his eyes. He frowned.

"_You_ watch it." He replied. Uh-oh.

For a second, I (and I believe everyone else) believed she'd bring the queen diva bitch, go crazy and humiliate him right there, with people hurrying for their classes. But them, all of a sudden, she smiled – almost a laugh. He raised an eyebrow and smiled too. She shook her head and stepped back.

It wouldn't be nothing if she walked away still looking back at him, still smiling. Her friends poked her and she answered with a "what?" still smiling.

I jogged to get to them.

"What the hell was that?"

"The same as always, Neal. Nothing." Sam said, shaking his head.

"No. She smiled for him."

"What? Girls can't smile for us?" Sam asked.

"_For_ us, no. They could, but they don't. They smile _at_ us."

"That's crap." Bill said. "Maureen had a pretty good time with us that day at Iron House."

"I'm not talking about Maureen."

"Neal." Sam cut. "You are seriously overreacting. Just chill, okay?"

"Yea, it means nothing." Bill agreed. "Remember what I told you."

I rolled my eyes. Crap was everything I was going through in my house.

But I think is fair, though, since I'm hard to believe them when they tell me something important or, you know, quite impossible. They have the right to not believe me as well sometimes.


	4. Evidence Number Three

**Evidence Number Three** (of Vicki's crush on Bill), by Neal Schweiber: _The Last Day of July, '81_

Lindsay was telling us this funny story about a jock she met in her summer trip who was also very smart – what surprised her quite a lot, because the jocks in our school do mostly average – and she said he kind of fell for a mate of hers who was a librarian hippie.

She said all those jocks date cheerleaders, but really have a secret crush on the gothic academic athletes who read Dostoiévski.

"Really?" Sam asked, a raised eyebrow.

"Yea. You just have to look a bit closer to notice."

She's so cool. I understand why my brother likes her. Damn, I understand why Nick Andopolis is being trying to get her back half of last year. She has so much life experience and she's so nice with Sam.

I mean, Barry and I get along great, but their dynamic is different, maybe because they only have two years between them.

Anyway, while she was telling us about the jock I was wondering…

"You think it can happen the other way around?" I asked before I could even process it. "Like… a popular girl falls in love with someone like us?"

I knew it was a crap question, since Sam dated Cindy and she seemed really devastated when they broke up, all that, but I had to ask.

Lindsay looked at me for a dead moment and when she talked, we could hear the doubt in her voice.

"Yes. Sure." She shrugged. "But just like with dudes, if she's gonna say it and date the guy, is _another_ story."

Damn Weirs, always having a point.

-X-

When Bill and I arrived at Sam's, he was by the phone kind of giggling and blushing and losing his words. I'm telling you, those guys shouldn't have the girls they have; because Sam obviously was talking to a girl.

"Yea, Maureen… No, we are launching rockets today." He said and smiled to us, muttering _She called_. "Do you wanna come?" Sam said in a surprised tone. "No, it's just that I thought… Oh, this is the funniest thing you did last year?" he had his eyebrows raised and Bill and I too. "No, totally, we'll be in the same place in about an hour. I guess we'll see you there, then. Okay. Later."

"What was that?" I asked as soon as he hung up.

"Maureen called me." Sam answered.

"We know that part, Sam." Bill said.

"Well, she just called, okay? Asking what we were going to do today."

"Did she specifically said "we"?" I asked, just to make sure.

"Yes. And you guys know the rest of the conversation."

We all smiled.

"Then, gentlemen," I said. "we're all going to launch rockets with Maureen. Again."

But of course Maureen wasn't alone.

When we got there, she was with Bell and Vicki, the other two girls looking not so amused to be there in the first place, as you might suppose.

Bill, Sam and I exchanged a look. That was probably going to blow; we should probably go home or find another place to launch those things. We were ready to step back when Maureen spotted us and run to get to us. Again.

That was seriously unfair.

"Hi guys!" she said, smiling. God, she's so beautiful! She should stop smiling. "You mind that I brought Vicki and Bell along? I told them this is going to be fun, but they don't believe me. So please don't blow it, okay?" I opened my mouth to tell her we weren't the ones who could blow anything, but she talked faster. "I mean, _I know_ this is fun for us. We just need to show them this can be fun for them too."

We kept silence for a second. Them Bill said.

"Well… we're super cool. Vicki knows that, you know that. I don't see how Bell could resist us any longer."

-X-

The first rocket we launched, Bell and Vicki looked very uninterested, but when Maureen ran to try and catch it before everyone else, Bell cracked up, ran after her laughing and we did the same. Only Vicki stood in the same place, looking up the rocket through her sunglasses.

The second time, she did the same thing. I heard her mutter "That's quite fascinating" under her breath. She took the glasses off, smiling and looked at me.

"Cool." She said.

Bell caught the rocket. She and Maureen had bumped on each other and fell laughing.

"It _is_ cool." I answered Vicki. "You should try to catch it too. It's better if it doesn't fall full in the ground, you know?"

She smiled. "I see."

So she did it. She started to laugh and run and have fun, like her friends did, and she talked to me like the cool person she is with everyone else, and like she did when Bill was sick at the hospital and Maureen convinced her to go there and support me and Sam. She made me almost believe I would have my chance, that she'd drive me crazy being my girlfriend or something, and I could hold her hand in the school's corridors and I'd be her weird crush like Lindsay's hippie friend was the jock's crush.

But, since I have the worst lucky in the world and nothing happens as I want to – not for me, of course -; since life is a crazy ass daughter of a bitch who bully me every time she has a chance, this is what happened:

Bell launched a rocket. It went nuts, like super high in the sky, and the sun was super bright because it was practically August, and we just ran around trying to predict where the hell it'd land. Maureen screamed "THERE!", pointing somewhere around Vicki, who shouted "I don't see anything!", but had her arms up anyway, until she saw it. It was Sam's new rocket, which was dark blue, with a white parachute and we were running around, all the six of us, with spots in our eyes for looking up so much. And them, she was running looking up, and Bill was doing exactly the same, and I stopped because I was a bit far anyway, and saw everything, because they just crashed and Bill caught the rocket, holding it high, out of her reach and the parachute tangled in her fingers.

"That's not fair, you're way taller than all of us!" she said, jumping a bit to try to reach the rocket. Bill laughed, holding the thing even higher.

She sighed, like she was frustrated, and they just looked to each other.

At this point, Sam, Maureen and Bell had stopped laughing and looked over to see what was happening. And they saw too, how she put her hands on his neck, and he leaned forward and she got on her toes and they kissed right there.

And I noticed, you know? He holding her waist with the hand he was holding the rocket, the other hand on her cheek; how they were so close and how you could tell they really didn't want to be anywhere else.

I was right all the time, of course. It just took us one launched rocket to know she really liked him, and, more than that, he liked her back. Maybe it wasn't all an "in love" thing, maybe it was just hormones. But isn't that way all things happen in this world?

"Evidence number three!" I finally said, pointing them and looking at Sam. "I told you!"

He shrugged and I looked at Bill and Vicki again. They weren't kissing anymore. Bill was looking at me with this huge question mark in his face. Vicki turned to look at her friends, all blushed; they had their jaws dropped of course.

And about me? I looked at Bill, because I knew what he was silently asking me, breathed slowly, sighed and then nodded.

Because, yes, I wish I would have a chance with Vicki Appleby, because she's gorgeous and intelligent and funny, but I couldn't do anything if the guy she fell for was Bill. I couldn't condemn him for liking her back, too. In fact, I thought it was quite cool, you know? Who knows, he can make her a better person!

Besides, Vicki was just a "might" for me. I'm still totally into Lindsay Weir.

_And_ we were half way though summer holidays. We still had plenty of time to find a summer love. I smiled and reached for Bell.

"Slide off, Schweiber." She said in a cold tone. Okay, probably not Bell. It's okay, she's much taller than me anyway.

"One more rocket before lunch?" I asked, and Maureen gave me her beautiful smile.

"Heck yea!"

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_**A/N**: That's a wrap, everyone!_

_Thank you for reading it, from the bottom of my heart._

_I'm not a very early 80s person when it comes to music (I mean, I love Joan Jett, but I think that's all), so I was listening to my iTunes while I was writing and Metric's "On a Slow Night" was playing, so it kind of fit perfectly with the last scene (Neal talking about the launched rocket that changed everything)._

_I think that's all I had to say. Thank you again, and reviews are welcome._

_xx_


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